MALAYSIA’s Paris Olympics chef de mission Hamidin Mohd Amin today urged all parties to stop blaming Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh for the national contingent’s failures at the 2023 SEA Games.

Hamidin, who is also Football Association of Malaysia president and Olympic Council of Malaysia deputy president, said Yeoh has been working hard since her appointment to cabinet and hasn’t had time on her side.

Hamidin said the National Sports Council (NSC) must find ways to improve athletes’ performance, as they managed to get only 34 of the 40 gold-target for the SEA Games.

“She (Yeoh) has been working tirelessly until today. We cannot simply blame her because it has only been six months since she was appointed minister. Almost every day, she met presidents of national sports associations,” he told reporters in Kuala Lumpur today.

“The NSC must take responsibility because it is the one collaborating with associations for the preparation of athletes. We will look at the weaknesses that need to be rectified before the 2025 and 2027 SEA Games because NSC is responsible for handling the funding,” he said.

The Malaysian contingent returned from Cambodia with 34 gold, 45 silver and 97 bronze medals after finishing seventh overall, lagging behind Cambodia, the Philippines and Singapore.

The achievement was one of the worst in Malaysia’s SEA Games track record.

Last year, the Malaysian contingent collected 39 gold medals to finish sixth overall in the Vietnam SEA Games.

Several parties have been calling for Yeoh to apologise for Malaysia’s failure in Cambodia, while some raised questions over the Segambut MP’s statement that the poor performance may have been due to political instability. – Bernama, May 29, 2023.